Forgotten
by hanaii
Summary: Squad Levi is down, and now the corporal must do what he's always done in the past: let go.


**AN:** Something I felt I should touch upon. The episode, in general, punched my face and hurt me a lot, so I thought I should share some of that.

**Episode-base:** Twenty-one  
**Character arcs:** Corporal Levi  
**Word Count:** 622  
**Summary:** Squad Levi is down, and now the corporal must do what he's always done in the past: let go.

* * *

Presentiment indulged, lingered at every surface of the pensive mind until it exhausted him mentally. Although placidity had become such a common expression, every breath had let out what elation was left inside of him and welcomed anxiety to enter in its place. Trembling fingertips learned to grip. Quivering lips steadied overtime. Frightened eyes matured into an intense, sharp gaze. Corporal Levi taught himself to wear a mask in order to conceal the part of him that seemed even remotely weak. He'd kept away from sentimental possessions, as well as actions that led to empathetic emotion for his comrades who had stayed loyal, so blindly entrusting him with their lives until the very end.

The gears come into motion, the screech of the wires earsplitting as they reverberate off the surface of the tree trunks. Over and over again, they hurtle towards Eren's thunderous cry.

This world is cruel. The corporal knows that more than anyone. Yet with each familiar face he passed, he couldn't help but feel a void somehow widening, deepening, piercing through that prideful, upright chest.

It wouldn't be the first time his entire squad had died on the line of duty. Occasionally, there was a class of special graduates who deemed worthy enough to be under his wing. Each specialized in different categories, but together with Levi, one would say they appeared invincible, able to slay any titan with their highly skilled maneuvering and strategic combat abilities. But after a few months, their luck runs out, and the corporal is forced to regroup another set of elite soldiers.

He'd come to recognize this pattern so easily that he's forgotten how to react. He's forgotten how to cry and mourn over those that pass in vain. It's another loss to humanity, another soul he just wasn't able to save in time, and there had been so many that he's lost count of them all a very, very long time ago.

How do you feel sorry for yourself? How do you get rid of the guilt that consumes the very core of your entity, knowing that you were responsible for the loss of an innocent smile? The voice of someone that another will never possess? The laugh that only that person will ever own?

How do you live in this cruel world? How? _How?_

Corporal Levi lacked the knowledge. He was unable to answer the most important questions, because he knows already. He knows just how harsh reality is, and understands that if you want to survive, you had to have the capability to withstand and grasp it willingly. Do not expect every judgment to be the right one. Follow instincts, or the future will form in the trail of regrets you, yourself, had made.

Always, Levi moves on, and he never looks back twice.

These are the last moments with them. Their visages are stunned, and communication is impossible at this point.

Because he's run out of apologies to say over his comrades' motionless bodies, he can only tell them how much they've contributed to mankind. He's always acknowledged their deaths and avenged them accordingly.

But this time, it's different. The trust embedded in him formed by this squad had abruptly become nonexistent, vanished into thin air with the rest of their hopes and dreams.

He had to start over again. New expressions, new personalities, new abilities to correspond with his exceeding talent. And he didn't know if he would be able to endure it any longer.

Then he remembered, again, that reality was not friendly. _Let go. _Imprinting their once smiling faces into his memory, he let his heart hang on a loose string, giving up what compassion he had left.

_Gunter, Erd, Auruo, Petra. Thank you._

_Goodbye._


End file.
